Here’s a typical story: a trans woman fights the city government so that she can use the women’s locker room, like any other woman. She’s pre-operative, so she still has that thing that makes people so nervous.

You know what makes this interesting, though? She used a private stall in the women’s locker room! The men’s room has no private stalls! She risks torment, derision, and violence by going into the men’s locker room. Nobody risks… anything when she uses the women’s locker room. I wish the world weren’t so crazy as to freak out over seeing a penis on a woman, but if that’s really a problem, remember that she’s fighting to use a stall in the women’s locker room. I can’t imagine a more appropriate compromise. (It’s not ideal–as my friends will tell you at length from the long stories I’ve made them endure–but it certainly removes the immediate risk of harassment and violence. The ideal would be widespread acceptance of trans people’s bodies, but until then, we can compromise.)

I’m sick of being treated like a suspect for these kind of things. All I want is a place to relieve myself and change my clothes. Any human being needs that. Believe me, I know what a cissexual woman looks like naked, and it’s not interesting enough to merit peeping. I’m not in third grade.